A 39-year-old mother from Massachusetts who was set to go on a work trip to Washington, D.C., hasn't been seen since New Year's Day, and detectives say they've been working around the clock to try to find her.
Ana Walshe was last seen at her home in Cohasset, Massachusetts, about 4 or 5 a.m. on New Year's Day.
Walshe's husband reported her missing on Wednesday, and police were simultaneously alerted by her employer in Washington, D.C., that they had not seen her.
Cohasset police held a news conference Friday to provide an update on the case. Cohasset Police Chief William Quigley said detectives with his agency and several others, including Massachusetts State Police, were working "around the clock" on the case.
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Quigley said police were told she was going to take a rideshare from her home to Logan Airport, and then board a plane to D.C. on a work-related trip. Police have since confirmed during their investigation that Walshe never boarded a plane, but have not been able to confirm whether she got into a rideshare service or not, the chief said.
Walshe had a plane ticket to D.C., where she traveled to weekly for work, booked on Jan. 3, not Jan. 1, Quigley said, but it was presumed she was trying to get an earlier flight due to a work emergency. She works in property management, and the couple has a townhouse and vehicle in D.C.
Quigley said the broader community, not just Cohasset, should be on the lookout for Walshe, noting her ties to D.C. and friends "all over the country." Police in Cohasset have been coordinating with D.C. authorities, who searched and found no trace of Walshe at her property there.
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Her husband has been fully cooperative, police said.
Investigators have not been able to track an electronic footprint on Walshe since she's been missing.
"At this point it's a missing person investigation," Quigley said. "We're just trying to locate Ana and get her home safely. We have nothing to support anything suspicious or criminal."
Also Friday, a fire broke out at the Walshe family's former home on Jerusalem Road in Cohasset. They moved out in April, police said, and it was too early to say Friday whether it was connected to her disappearance.
Firefighters responded shortly before 2:30 p.m. after residents reported smelling smoke, then seeing it. Three adults, including a nanny, and a 21-month-old child were evacuated.
No one was injured, Cohasset Fire Chief John Dockray said Friday evening.
"The fire ended up getting up into the attic space, and we had extreme difficulty trying to access the attic, and once the fire started coming out through the roof, we had to pull all members out of the building and go to an exterior attack," Dockray said.
Investigators determined that this fire was not suspicious. It originated in the area of damaged piping connected to a natural gas fireplace insert.
"Took us a good hour to knock down the heavy fire, and then we've been chasing a lot of pockets because the roof caved in," Dockray said. "It's been difficult accessing the pockets of fire to extinguish them."
Walshe was described as 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighing about 115 pounds.
Walshe has brown hair, brown eyes, an olive complexion and speaks with an Eastern European accent. Friends say she is a wife and mother to three young boys.
“Ana is a remarkable woman," her friend Peter Kirby said. "She’s a powerful executive, she’s a loving mom, she’s just loving wife, she’s one of the most remarkable humans we know, and we’re very scared. We miss her a lot and we’re just praying for her to be safe.”
Cohasset police have searched the house and adjacent area with its K9 unit, and will likely revisit that Friday.
"The focus right now is trying to locate her," Chief Quigley said. "Whether she just needed a little break or time out. If that's the case we're just looking for her to call — all it takes is a phone call to let us know she's okay."
State police also searched near Massachusetts Route 3A, officials said.
Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call police at 781-383-1055, Ext. 6108 or email hschmidt@cohassetpolice.com
